A couple of months ago, Brad Faxon finished third in the Valspar Championship. Now he’s teeing it up Thursday in the first round of the Masters. How did Faxon make such a dramatic comeback after missing two months due to injury? His wife, who basically saved his life.
Even before Faxon signed a $42 million contract with the tour, former college sweetheart A.J. Rosen paid for his tour insurance and arranged to be paid if he needed to miss any tournaments because of injury. After Faxon’s disastrous 2010 season, in which he missed 14 consecutive cuts, the couple decided to become insurance agents together to give them more security for their family and for the future.
Faxon wasn’t much of a golfer as a teenager, and according to Rosen, he didn’t give much of a thought to the PGA Tour as a whole or to the players who play it, even those competing in the Masters. He never felt like he fit into the program he loved until Rosen convinced him to start playing the sport. Rosen became the pro at three golf courses, while Faxon helped her set up a website so they could schedule practice.
The two finally broke in to golf professionally in 2001, when a traveling Spokesman agent lured Rosen to Tampa from her native Canada. They quickly hit it off, and the couple decided to give the PGA Tour a shot.
Today they are proud and grateful parents of two boys, Ben (12) and Cody (10), and Rosen’s little boy, Skylar, is also playing golf.